McCarthy versus McEwan: Minimalistic and Excessive Narrative Styles Rebekka A. Strom College

British novelist Ian McEwan’s masterpiece Atonement can be appropriately compared to American writer Cormac McCarthy’s novel No Country for Old Men with the common denominating theme of intense experience—its opportunities and its ramifications. Contrastingly, each author chooses to present the motif by utilizing an entirely opposite method in order to achieve various types of effects—both for the readership and for the development of the novel’s characters. The opposing narrational styles incorporate minimalism—in the case of McCarthy—while McEwan embraces a multi-level, textured approach. Each technique alludes to a broader perspective, drawing the readers further into the story worlds that both authors have brilliantly fabricated. The correlation between film and literature is emphasized in the comparision of these ingenious 21st-century novels as Hollywood depictions also present a degree of variance in their attempt to extend equivalents for literary diversity and intricacy.

Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement illustrates the multi-dimensional narration frames of literary technique in order to further draw the readership into the work. This kaleidoscopic structure of fiction and nonfiction, fabrication and reality, and dishonesty...